One Day in Hood River

So I got the opportunity to fly out to Portland for a few days with my girlfriend. I'll have one day to myself to ride. I need to rent a bike and I won't be able to transport it in a car. I'm from Delaware and I ride fairly often (2-3 times a week at approximately 15 miles with 1250ft of climbing). I did a 20 mile ride with 2000ft of climbing in Park City last fall.

I was looking for a place to ride where I could ride right from the rental shop to a trail head of some sort.

I tried to do some of my own research as to where would be the best area within an hour of Portland. I was between Sandy Ridge and Hood River. I found Hood River had a better selection of shops and it seemed to be close to trails. I booked an Ibis Mojo 3 (Its a bike I was actually interested in purchasing at some point in my future) from Hood River Bicycles.

I just have a few questions:

-Is Hood River in any bit similar to Park City? Park City is the only destination I can compare anything to.

-Will I be able to ride from the bike shop to some worthwhile trails? Or will I need to look into transporting the bike (which I think with enough determination I could figure it out)?

-Will I be able to navigate the trails on my own, or would you suggest looking into a guide? Also, if I only have from 9-3pm, could you recommend any routes that have great scenic views and good riding?

Get the maplets app for your phone to ride Post Canyon - it works really well. Makes PC pretty easy to navigate.

You can ride to Post Canyon from the bike shops in town (probably around a 15 minute ride I would guess). Search around on this forum to get some good route ideas. Riding up to family man, up 8 track to extended play , then down Bad Motor Scooter, GP, and Kleeway is a good basic route.

PC is totally worth it, and IMHO the Hood River area is way better than Sandy Ridge, so you made the right call.

What type of riding are you looking for? Post Canyon has a good mix of XC, flow trails, and free-ride. Definitely worth checking out.

If you're looking for more backcountry XC trails with scenic views you'll want to head up 35 toward Mt Hood and hit some of the trails Dirtfarmer mentioned. Though they are a lot farther out of town than you're going to want to pedal a mountain bike in the time window you have.

Also, be warned most of the riding in Oregon (except Bend or one of the river trails like McKenzie or N Upmpqua) will have a lot more climbing than 1250 ft in 15 miles or 2000 ft in 20 miles. I've only ridden post Canyon 1 time, but it felt very similar to the trails I ride regularly in terms of the amount and steepness of the climbs. I would guestimate roughly double the amount of climbing per mile from what you posted.

For example, Surveyors ridge is ~24 miles (out and back) and ~5,1,000 ft of climbing.
My intent isn't to scare you in any way, just an FYI to pay attention to the elevation gain when planning your route.

However, what we don't have a ton of are high elevation trails (not much over 6,500 ft and the vast majority much much lower) so coming from Delaware you probably won't be sucking wind as much as in Park City.

Hood River is at 160 ft above sea level. Post canyon trails are mostly between about 750 ft to 2500 ft elevation, though I think there is one of the further out trails that gets up to about 3400 ft.

The trails up off Hwy 35 that Dirtfarmer mentioned, are roughly between 4,000 and 5,000 ft elevation, which you might notice, but it probably won't affect you a lot (though some folks are affected more than others).

For example, Surveyors ridge is ~24 miles (out and back) and ~5,1,000 ft of climbing.
My intent isn't to scare you in any way, just an FYI to pay attention to the elevation gain when planning your route.

I appreciate that! After reading this, I went back to look at my Park City Ride on Strava. It was closer to 3000 feet of climbing within 20 miles. I know that's still not the same as what Surveyors Ridge would be, but I'm going to give it a shot. I'm in much better shape than I was when I rode in Park City. I have been riding a lot more compared to when I was in Utah (roughly double the miles), so I'm feeling optimistic. And honestly, it's not every day I get the chance to do an IMBA Epic Ride.

Get the maplets app for your phone to ride Post Canyon - it works really well. Makes PC pretty easy to navigate.

Thanks! I'm going to download that and check it out. For both this trip and local use.

Do any shops run shuttles to the Surveyor's Ridge/Knebal/8 Mile area? That's where I'd lay my money

I called HRB, which is where I am renting, and they only offer Post Canyon shuttles. I'd really love to do shuttled downhill stuff like that. But I don't think it's the best idea for me being alone and across the country from anything or anyone familiar.

With your recommendation though, I decided to do the Surveyor's Ridge out and back. I'm going to just cram the bike into the rental car and hope for the best. Any suggestions as to which way is the best to do the trail out and back? I read a review saying park at the Oakridge area (which is the Northern starting point) and start there. It said that would put most of the climbing in the beginning/middle of the ride giving the end of the day more descending. Is that correct?

Park at the parking lot of the south side of Bald Butte off of FS17 (pinemont Rd) under the power lines, not at the bottom of Oakridge. You can ride the trail south from there as an out and back, or take FS 17 to FS 44 as a easy road climb and then the trail back.

I am vacationing in Hood River until the 29th and can ride any day. What is your ride day? The Dirt Surfer shuttle from Kingsley Reservior is sweet. 15 miles to the house we are renting. We have access to a car. What is your phone number. Also, a shuttle from Surveryors down to the Oak Ridge trail is doable. Oak Ridge had some logging in part of it a few years ago. Francine

If you shuttle from Kingley Reservoir area, you are looking at about 10 miles down to the very bottom of Post Canyon Drive. Here is a screen shot of the Strava screen from such a ride.

As you can see roughly 10 miles and around 3k vertical. That is about as high as you can shuttle at Post, but there are some other diversions you could take back and forth around the hills to increase distance of a shuttle. But my advice is that you have such nice climbing at Post that it would be shame to not do that. You can come down the shuttle trails (170, DirtSurfer, 140, Bad Moto Scooter, GP, Toilet Bowl, Kleeway) but you could also do the 3k climb up there via a different set of trails so you have some variation. That's the joy of Post Canyon. Study Strava and you will see the options for climbing and descending.

If you are up for about 20 miles and 2.5k climbing, I can recommend Surveyors from the Bald Butte lot and then take Surveyors+superconnector. It is out and back and looks like this:

While there are some maps around town at the shops, spend some time on Strava first looking at the segments/routes.

Lastly, if you can find someone with a second car to shuttle, my favorite ride is a 30 mile trip from the Bennett Pass Sno Park to Gunsight Ridge to High Prairie to Kneibal to SuperCrossover and then down Surveyors Ridge. Put one car at Bald Butte and then head to Bennett Pass Sno Park for one of the more spectacular rides in the area.

FYI, my usual route at Post Canyon is to drive up to what I think is the Seven Streams staging area (first up the hill after the entrance) then either:
1) climb up to Kleeway and down back to the car. 15 minute round trip, which I'll repeat 3 times if I have, say, 45 minutes available. The climb is pretty easy.
2) climb up the same route, but then continue on the switch backs to the top @ Family Man. This climb is harder, so I usually noodle around on the pump track to catch my breath, then proceed down Flow On (I think that's what it's called-- lots of switchbacks w/ berms) to the junction with Kleeway. There's a great video of kleeway on youtube. Repeat.
3) There's a long way around too-- about 2/3 of the way down Kleeway is a junction w/ Moebius which has a long climb and then some sections through forest. Moebius ends up meeting up with a couple of trails-- Spaghetti Factory, which is flowy and joins up with several other trails which lead to Family Man. Alternatively, Mitchell ridge is a fast downhill with a spectacular view of the Gorge at one turn. It terminates at the Seven Streams staging area.

I'm glad you started this topic because I'm going to try some of the other suggested rides myself

One other note, the maps available at the staging areas have the trails marked with numbers, not names. When I started riding there, I wrote the names in. The folks at the shop should be able to map names to numbers.

I ended up not going to Surveyors Ridge. I stayed in Hood River and rode Post Canyon. The guys at Hood River Bikes really helped me out with a route plan. Unfortunately the map costed 12 dollars. But if you think about it as playing 12 dollars for a map and good advice (and a complimentary beer when i got back), it's not so bad.

I rode from HR bikes to Post Canyon. This was a bit of a ride on its own lol. It's a 30 minute ride that's mostly uphill. I wouldn't recommend doing this if you have an option to get a ride to the trailhead. I rode up seven streams to family man staging area. I checked out the pump track, which was really neat. I've never ridden one so that was cool. From family man I rode up 8 track. That was a lot of fun until the switchbacks towards the top. I'm not going to lie, I had to walk a few of them . The view up there at the top of 8 track is pretty great.

From the top of 8 track, I took Bad Moto Scooter, GP then lower GP. Damn that was fun. From lower GP I went and did Charley's loop. That was really neat but also pretty tough. I got a little lost here trying to find my way to the toilet bowl. But I found it! Took toilet bowl down to Kleeway. Then back and forth down the side of the road trails back down to the bottom parking area. Then back to town.

I hung out at the shop for a while drinking my post ride beer. Everyone I met along the way from the shop to the trails and in town, were very friendly. I had lunch at Dark Horse brew pub. Good food, really nice staff and a cool view of the river area.

I really envy you guys who live close to Post Canyon. That long descent is like nothing I've ever ridden. Definitely happy with the decision I made to ride here. I'd really love to ride here again and maybe do a shuttle and climb higher than I did.

The short time I spent here was awesome. Thanks again for all the great info!

Yea, White Clay is pretty much as good as it gets without driving too far.

I guess it would be considered XC mostly. There are plenty short downhills that can get pretty fast though. Nothing like the miles of downhill in Post Canyon. All of the trails in White Clay/Middle Run are two way. So keep that in mind on blind downhill turns.

The tail system stretches across about 4 sections of parks. All but one parking areas are free. The Middle Run bird sanctuary is a free parking area right in the middle of the tail system. You could probably do 20-25 miles of trail without doing any of the loops twice.

There's also a place called Fair Hill. Which I don't think is too far from Newark. I've read that there's as much, if not more trails than White Clay. But I don't think the tail system is as well maintained and marked. I've never ridden there so I can't comment on it.

There's two bike shops right in Newark. Bike Line and Wooden Wheels. I know for sure Bike Line rents bikes. Anything from a hybrid bike to full suspension. It's a similar commute to the trails from Main Street in Newark compared to Hood River and Post Canyon. Maybe even closer than Post.

Hope that helps a bit! It's the least I could do for all the help I received here.